AUSTIN — An appeals court sided with former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay today, upholding a lower court ruling that dismissed one of the felony conspiracy charges against him.

Although it was a victory for DeLay, who announced this month that he is resigning from office, he still faces a money-laundering charge and another conspiracy charge stemming from the financing of state legislative races in 2002.

A lower court judge dismissed a conspiracy charge against the Sugar Land Republican in December, agreeing with defense arguments that a conspiracy law did not cover election code violations when the alleged offense was committed in 2002. The Legislature amended the law in 2003 to include the election code violation.

Prosecutors argued last month before a three-judge panel of the 3rd Court of Appeals that conspiracy to violate the election code had always been a crime and that the 2003 change merely clarified the law. Prosecutors wanted the charge reinstated.

Related Stories

The appeals court unanimously rejected that argument today. The ruling said that while the state's argument had merit, the court was bound by legal precedent set by the Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest court for criminal matters.

No trial date has been set on the remaining criminal charges. Judge Pat Priest said that because of the time frame surrounding any further appeals and his personal vacation to Europe, trial proceedings would probably begin in July at the earliest.

District Attorney Ronnie Earle said his office would review the ruling before deciding whether to appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals.

DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin predicted prosecutors will appeal "in order to drag it out further."

"We've been right all along that Ronnie Earle charged a crime that didn't exist and there's 30 years of precedent that backs that up," DeGuerin said. "We want to get to trial and hope once we do, a jury will find Tom Delay didn't do anything illegal."

DeLay stepped aside as majority leader last fall after he was indicted in Texas. He won his GOP primary in March, but later announced he'll resign from Congress in the coming weeks.

With DeLay's help, Texas Republicans won control of the Legislature in 2002 and pushed through a redistricting plan the next year that helped Texas send more Republicans to Congress in 2004.